TEMPERAMENT

In a village named Malandour lived two 40-year-old men of contrasting temperaments—Kabir and Ranbir. Both of them were neighbours. Kabir was good-natured with everyone and offered help to people in need whenever possible. Thus, he was respected by every villager.

  On the other hand, Ranbir was downright parsimonious. He was always unwilling to spend money or time for others, which, according to him, was futile and of no use. Though nobody complained about his behaviour with the society in public, he was quite disliked and badmouthed behind the back.

  Ranbir used to envy the popularity Kabir had and craved for the same respect that he wasn’t attaining. To satisfy his whims, Ranbir picked up the habit of collecting garbage from his house and hurling it over the party wall between his and Kabir’s house.

  One fine day, Kabir caught Ranbir red-handed while he was repeating the same. Yet, he did not condemn or criticize. He simply said, “It is not good on your part to throw your garbage into my house.”

  Ranbir retorted back, saying, “Me? What will I get by doing so? I haven’t thrown any garbage into your house!”

  Kabir comprehended the situation, sighed, and went back into his house. He did not make a fuss of it, though making one would still have been justified. Ranbir grumbled over the event all day, wondering whether his neighbour did catch a glimpse of him tossing the garbage over or simply predicted so. Within a few days, he forgot about it.

In the course of time, Subbaiah, the landlord of the village, visited Ranbir’s house. Subbaiah had a charming 22-year-old daughter studying in a city nearby, and everybody admired the girl for her cheerful nature. Ranbir had a well-educated son, too, and wanted to make Subbaiah’s daughter his daughter-in-law.

  So Ranbir sought to look as decent as possible and also offered lunch to the landlord. Subsequently, after some time, he put together his thoughts into words and said that he would very well appreciate it if Subbaiah could make his daughter their daughter-in-law.

  Subbaiah seemed pleased to hear so, much to Ranbir’s surprise, but requested some time to discuss it with his family. Ranbir gladly granted it.

  Later, before leaving, he added, “There is a friend of mine named Kabir in this village. I’ve forgotten his house address…am looking for his advice on my property matters, and perhaps also about the idea of giving my daughter to your family, now that you’ve mentioned it. Do you know where he lives?”

  “Oh, Kabir!” Ranbir responded. “I sure do, sir. He lives in the very next flat. Let’s go, I can show you to his house.”

  As they were walking to their destination, Ranbir was preoccupied with ruminations.

  “What if Kabir reveals my unpleasant habits? What if Subbaiah is disgruntled with it and cancels the wedding plans? What if all the villagers get to know about my lousy behaviour?!”

  With the opinion of utter contrition for accompanying the landlord, Ranbir entered his neighbour’s house. Kabir greeted the two in a pleasant manner as is customary, and hugged his old friend Subbaiah in delight. He requested both of them to sit down.

  Kabir, putting two and two together, grasped the cause for Ranbir coming along with the landlord. Without anybody asking for it, he began praising Ranbir and his family, talking about all the good they’d done to them whilst they were neighbours. Subbaiah wasn’t surprised, thus he simply smiled—but Ranbir was, and awfully! He was shocked to listen to the eulogize he was receiving for the first time in his life but chose to keep his mouth shut.

  “Since my best friend is insisting on it,” said Subbaiah, “there is no reason to deny the wedding plans of our children whatsoever. I will speak about it with my daughter; we will soon talk about it again. It is getting late, I must leave now.”

  Just as Subbaiah left, Ranbir asked, “I troubled you many times previously. Why did you praise me so much…don’t you remember any of those incidents?”

  “I do,” said Kabir, “but it doesn’t matter. Negative things never matter. There are so many great traits about you, why dwell on the negative ones? Always remember the positive aspect of a person, not the negative. Even if you remember the negative, never speak it out. It has no use.”

  Not only was Ranbir left out of words to react, he also learned a lesson that he would never forget. A lesson that could change his life, and surely would!

The best way to forget the bad things in life is to learn to remember the good things.

Mark Amend

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Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of my imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental. || Contents of this story should not be reproduced in any manner without permission.